Today, a factotum might be more commonly referred to as a “jack-of-all-trades” — it’s a type of person who is capable of performing all kinds of tasks around the workplace. Founding father Benjamin Franklin — writer, philosopher, scientist, inventor, and statesman — was a self-professed factotum. In his autobiography, he wrote: “I made the ink; I was warehouseman, and every thing, and, in short, quite a factotum.” He then gave the definition of the word “factotum” in a footnote: “one who makes himself generally useful; a ‘do-all.'” The word comes from a shortened Latin phrase, “magister factotum,” meaning “master of everything.”